A Breakthrough for Human Rights

The Chinese government runs a tight ship; there is harsh censorship and repression of its citizens.

Google, the world's leading Internet company, has for years--in order to advance its business profits--agreed to censorship by the Chinese government. This has drawn worldwide condemnation from humanitarian and civil rights groups

No more!

This decision will have important and widespread effects on the repressed citizenry in China and elsewhere, on the worldwide business community, and on global politics.

Google will lose business in China. But it will survive and thrive. And other big businesses will be impelled (by their moral principles, their public images, and their management boards) to follow suit.

China is trying hard these days to be a world-class political and economic player. Therefore, China will capitulate. The capitulation will at first be partial and delayed--who knows when or how much? But this raises the pressure on the Chinese regime by an enormous amount, and it raises it at a very sensitive point--their global public and economic interface.

Today--and this decision--will go down in history as a breakthrough for advancing human rights.